Hopelessly Deluded?
by Transgenic-girl
Summary: Just something that popped into my head while rewatching Season 1 on DVD. Set anywhere after season one. Should I continue?


"You know...you spend a lot of time running off guys who are interested in Brennan for someone who says he's not interested in her himself." Angela's voice interrupted Booth's thoughts.

He jerked upright. He'd been leaning on one of the labtables, and had been watching his partner from across the room. She was talking with the new agent who Booth had been ordered to show around for the day. The son of a high ranking government official, fresh out of the academy and overly confident with boy-next-door good looks, he was practically oozing charm out every pore as he responded to her question.

Booth's feelings on the younger man quickly switched from the view of an almost brotherly protective figure to one of a competitor. After all, Bones was _his_ forensic anthropologist.

"You're doing it again." The artist said out pointedly.

He whipped his head to the side to face her. "Doing what again?" He asked with more vehemence than he meant to. And a little bit of anger that he didn't mean to direct towards her. After all, he wasn't angry at her, but rather at that smarmy little...

"Going into your usual 'possessive caveman' mode of yours. You know, the same one you go into every time an even somewhat attractive man goes within ten feet of Bren." Angela completely ignored the anger in Booth's voice, because she knew that he was just frustrated over the latest happenings in his and Brennan's dance around eachother. Personally she believed that they were getting as sick of it as everyone else was.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." He played the blissfully ignorant act. One both he and she knew was just that...an act. "I'm not possessive of Bones. We work together, we're partners. That's it,"

Angela shook her head with a sigh. He was getting worse and worse at hiding his feelings, he couldn't even manage to fool Zack, and that boy never had his head out of the clouds. Everyone had decided to play along with both Booth and Brennan's pretendings that neither felt anything for eachother besides work-related partner-esque emotions.

She looked at him dead in the eye. "What about when her ex showed up and testified against her findings?"

He shrugged. "I kept him away from her because as her partner it was my job to protect her from him damaging her confidence further, If she isn't the usual know-it-all Dr. Temperence Brennan, she just isn't any help on a case. I can't have her second guessing herself when it's all on the line..."

Angela cut him off. "And what about before he testified, Before he was the defense's star witness? She told you that she had plans to go out with him for dinner and you flinched."

"I didn't flinch..." Booth protested weakly. Angela's raised eyebrows told him how much she believed that. "Okay, so I was surprised that she was missing the chance to work on a new case to grab dinner with an old teacher."

Angela smiled knowingly. "No, you were surprised she was missing work to grab dinner with a _guy_, A guy who wasn't you." She paused a moment for effect. "And everytime you were in a room with the two of them you kept trying to show him up and delighted in every hit Bren made in their debates."

"The guy was an ass. I could tell from the moment I saw him." Booth dug himself a little mental trench and Angela knew she wouldn't be able to win this particular battle. She could practically hear him say 'and that's that.'

"And what about that guy who thought the pieces of bone we found belonged to his long lost father? The one who almost kissed her in her office?"

"He what?!" Booth practically yelled out, drawing stares from all around the room. Brennan and the new agent paused in their conversation just to look at him. "I mean, what about him?" He demured quietly.

She had to fight the urge to roll her eyes, really fight. "Were you in another room just now? Or did you hear, just like everyone else in this room, how much the idea of some other guy kissing her disturbs you?"

"Not just some other guy." Booth tried to defend himself. "That guy. He'd spent the last five years 'searching' for his father. And we all know he was probably the one to kill him anyway. Hell, the guy has gotten rich off the search."

"Okay," Angela decided to try another tact. "What about when she was kidnapped?"

He shot her a look. "Which time?"

She shrugged, conceding to the fact that Brennan did get kidnapped an awful lot. "Any of the times. What was the first thing you did?"

He looked blankly at her. "I don't know, what?"

"Hon." She gave him a half smile. "You get this half scared, half scary look on your face. Like you're frightened that she'll get hurt by someone, but at the same time thinking about what you're going to do to whoever hurts her."

"I do not. I know she can take care of herself for the most part."

She crossed her arm and shot him her patent pending 'Uh huh, sure hon' look that was classic Angela. "You do. And then you rally the troops and ride in to save the day. You don't even think about putting yourself in harms way to save her."

His eyes widened as her points hit home. But still, he refused to give up the fight. "I just do what any partner would do..."

She cut him off again. She was getting sick of all the B.S., no matter how sweet the intentions behind it were. "You left the hospital despite all your doctors asking you not to, got _Jack_ to drive you to where she was being held and steamrolled over all the junior agents so you could be the one to get to her first."

He just kind of gaped at her. His mouth opened and closed like a fish's while he scrambled of something to say. But all he could think of was every time he'd put aside his current girlfriend or plans for _his_ Bones, even if she didn't want his comfort, he always rushed to offer it to her. Every time he'd bent, hell broke, some FBI/government/personal rule or law to help her get her way. Every time he'd felt a sick feeling in his stomach when he realized she was in danger.

A wide smile stretched across Angela's exotic features as she watched realization show on his face. He shot her a grateful smile.

"Thanks Ange." And with that he was off and running across the room. Towards _his_ Bones.

------------


End file.
